Past News Releases

Existing Home Sales declined -0.4% according to the latest report from the National Association of Realtors. The announcement was a disappointment for Peoples Home Equity but the lender realized that these numbers still are representative of the winter, not spring when housing demand reignites.

The National Association of Realtors reported on Thursday, March 20th that existing home sales were 4.6 million for February 2014. February's report was the lowest sales notice since July 2012. Existing home sales have now declined -14.65% since August 2013 back when sales were at 5.39 million. However, there were areas of the report that were positive. The median time for a home to remain on the market declined -7.46% from 67 days in January to 67 days in February. Total housing inventory, which has not been enough to meet demand, increased over 6% in February as supply rose from 4.9 months to 5.2 months. In the South of the USA, existing home sales actually rose 1.5%, and the west experienced a whopping 5.9% rise in February! However, for the Midwest, which is where Peoples Home Equity centers a lot of its lending locations, sales declined -3.8%.

Peoples Home Equity finds that for the Midwest, this February report echoes the same sense of why home sales declined in January. Rising home prices due to low inventories, rising mortgage rates year-over-year due to Fed unwinding and anticipated rate hikes, and cold weather are the same culprits for February as they were for January.

Generally speaking about US real estate, Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the NAR said “We had ongoing unusual weather disruptions across much of the country last month, with the continuing frictions of constrained inventory, restrictive mortgage lending standards and housing affordability less favorable than a year ago.”

While new home sales were great for February, existing home sales carry more weight since it accounts for the greater share of the real estate market. Nevertheless, Peoples Home Equity is upbeat about existing home sales for March and following spring months ahead. The lender believes the declining unemployment level in the fall and winter months will translate to occasional surges in weekly mortgage applications and thus property purchases.